Double-Chocolate Brownie Cookies

These are thick, fudgy, shiny and brownie-like. They don’t have any baking soda or baking powder, which makes them very dense. Surprisingly, they do not spread.

This recipe is from the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook, but I changed a few things along the way. Martha used a standing mixer, melted her chocolate over warm water and did not chill the dough. She also used a little less vanilla and did not say to toast the walnuts.

I took some extra time to toast the walnuts, but saved time by using a hand held mixer and melting the chocolate in the microwave. I also added a little extra vanilla. The key change I made, was to chill the dough. Martha didn’t recommend chilling the dough and perhaps she didn’t need to, but I found that the dough was too moist to form into balls or even gobs. It needed at least 2 hours in the refrigerator. After being chilled, the dough was very easy to deal with.

Here’s what the cookies looked like right out of the oven. They’re pretty shiny and still look a little moist. I prefer taking them out a little early so that they can cook internally.

Place 5 ounces of the semi-sweet chocolate, unsweetened chocolate and butter in a microwave-save bowl; Microwave on high for 30 seconds then stir. Repeat; microwaving at 30 second intervals and stirring to distribute heat (about 2 minutes total). Let cool for about 5 minutes.

In a second bowl, using high speed of electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar together for 3 minutes. Beat In vanilla. Stir about 1/3 cup egg mixture into chocolate. Stir in the rest of the egg mixture. Add flour and salt and stir until incorporated, then stir in walnuts and remaining chocolate chunks.

At this point, batter will be somewhat moist. Chill dough for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Scoop up dough and shape it into 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inch balls. Place balls about 3 inches apart on cookies sheets. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are shiny and set but not too dry looking. Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes then transfer to a rack to cool.

Makes about 30.

Note: It’s important to get the cook time just right. You may want to bake up 5 or 6 cookies as a test.

Comments

I still have not been motivated to bake anything out of this book. I really don’t know why. It always seems I’m missing at least one key ingredient or the recipes just don’t appeal to me. I must be the only one. These cookies look darn good, though.

I made these a few weeks ago and LOVED THEM! For me they’re the perfect texture. Although, I did substitute chocolate chips for the walnuts, (I’m not a huge fan of walnuts or pecans). Also, I didn’t chill the dough before baking, I used my cookie/ice-cream scoop dropper and it worked just fine. : )

I just made these and they are delicious! I was surprised how runny the batter was. It looked like brownie batter, hmmm, wonder why. I didn’t chill my dough either. I’ve got 12 kids here on spring break, I can’t pull them out of the oven fast enough for them! I just poured it on the pan into cookies. I love the big chunks of chocolate and nuts. They were wonderful! Thanks!

Dolly and Debbi, you are both very daring to attempt baking such a runny batter. I’m glad to hear it didn’t need to be chilled.

I noticed that the dough/batter that sat in the refrigerator overnight yielded fatter, fudgier cookies. So I guess chilling is good if you have the time. If not, just sling the stuff on the cookie sheet and bake the cookies.